Georgia's current state flag is based on the first national flag of the Confederacy. So you'd think "heritage"-pimping Georgians would be cool with a painting based on the Confederate Battle Flag. But apparently not. Was it the Klansman, maybe?

This is "Heritage?," a seven-foot acrylic by Gainesville State College professor Stanley Bermudez. Bermudez, originally from Venezuela, painted "what comes to his mind when he thinks of the Confederate flag." And, because he is not willfully ignorant, what comes to mind is violence, racism and terror.

Although the finished piece is how Bermudez sees the flag, not everyone agrees with his views. Public response to the piece was so strong that Gainesville State's administration asked that the picture be removed from the faculty showing in the Roy C. Moore Art Gallery on the college's Oakwood campus, Bermudez says....

The college declined to share with The Times any of the feedback that prompted the removal of the painting; however, at least one "Southern heritage" website described the painting as "despicable" and prompted visitors to contact Martha Nesbitt, the college's president, about the picture. Site administrators even posted her e-mail address and telephone number.

Ha, yes, "despicable"! This is a despicable painting! I mean, on the one hand, slavery and centuries of institutionalized terror and oppression, and on the other hand, this painting. So, let's call it even.